AMERICAN MENACE To BRITAIN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13906, 6 November 1919, Page 4

AMERICAN MENACE To BRITAIN.

Warning ■ r ■ - to Brit i-li _1;.1.0r that Amoriea is no; l< living Fngland in the iureh ill trade 11 'in)»-i : ii< hi arc in- ; t] i.l from various 1 tvii;i am lionties vim appeal to tho workmen in (Jreut Britain to have dour with the slow suicide oi protracted unrest ami idleness. - (Ino journal nuotes 1 I Jet roit [■ roe Press as sa\tng that /America s iuvasion 1 " oi Britain s industrial market s is v eil under wav." and lho Welsh coalfields arc o\et-

flowing with ankce missionaries intent on getting a foothold on the other sick'"of the water." and it asks. "Are we to take this commercial challenge lying down, as wo did the insidious advances of the Hun ! Ihe London Daily Mail mentions "a vip'* eallv keen and successful Lancashire manufacturer." .just returned from a thorough inspection of American industry. who confesses that ho is "staggered" by the discoveries he made .especially (he tact thai in hardlv any industry arc we able to compete with the United Stales. The Mail reminds its readers that while industry is hesitating and labor striking in England, American capital and labor in •alliance are "bounding forward in the eoniuiprcial conquest ni" the world." American business men. utilising accumulated war-pro-tits. are planning a campaign of unlimited commercial extension in foreign markets. "formerly our markets." and they are "doing all the successful things which wo ought to be doing. too." I'ow is it- done/ this paper asks, and makes answer as follows '' I'Jv high wap.es and abundant. unlimited production. The two go together and cannot go separately. That is the lesson our workers ought to grasp and understand. The ipialitv of our work is at least as good as the Amerieau, but our output. is infinitely less. Wages in America are. from 'JT) per cent, to ,10 per cent, higher ,Vhan in_ this country. .lint* there is no artificial limitation on output in the United States. Labor in America lights for its own hand stoutly enough, but it does not quarrel with its bread and butter. In fact, labor in America concentrates with intensity on high wages and good conditions of life. Bur in return it gives a strenuous day's work, 'all out,' all the time. It recognises that a certain amount of discipline and control is necessary to the success of continuous largescale production on which labor's own welfare depends. While'we are bickering American capital and labor have- 'got together" for a combined attack on the export markets of the 'world —markets in which British British goods wore once supreme. If wo 'get together' we shall get them back'. But there is no time to lose." The most striking utterances to the British workmen, perhaps, is made bv the distinguished publicist, Frederic Harrison, in the London Daily Chronicle. This veteran champion of trades-unions writes: "It rests with you, the trained and chosen leaders of labor, to make your fellow workers understand how close to ruin and starvation our people stand. This is no panic cry. Tt is the plain truth, which your experience oi' economic realities must have forced upon your own minds. Make those who look to you for guidance see it as clearly as you see it yourselves. Trade-unionism, which during two whole generations has won for

our people untold trains by .trradual and skilful action, is menaced to-dav from within by mutiny. It is challenged by the outlandish craze for local Soviets and" wildcat visions of foreign anarchism. Lnless you, the responsible leaders, can enforce discipline. restore union and common sense in the masses of labor, tradeunionism itself is lost —and in the breakdown of it ruin and starvation await millions of our people at home." .Mr Harrison points out that England is now importing yearly ,£SOO.000, Odd more than she exports, and for the most part of what she imports she ptiys only in paper "promises to pay," and lie continues: "The vaucs paid enormously exceed the real value of the work done. ISreaU. coal, houses, sea and land transport are all subsidised, as very soon meat and milk will be subsidised. That means that producers of all of these necessaries are paid

i';ir more thssn the goods really earn. A large part of wacreK now paid In workmen are doles, i.e., gifts paid over and above the value of their work out of the taxes of their follow citizen*. So far labor is being pauperised : it is being given. money which it does not earn ; it is suckins 1 down the savins 1 * of thrift and piling up debts to lie heavy on our children. This cannot go on. If some ten or fifteen millions of men and. women continue to receive n large portion of their wages out- of the pockets of the taxpayers, this monstrous form of charity must end —because the fund that supplies it will speedily dry tip. No countrv in the world can make a practise of paving its workers a bonus of £•200,000.000 more than they really earn, liesides which the whole transaction is one of paper credit, i.e.. promises to pay. not of money or money's worth. The most unthinking can see that it means bankruptcy for the state, ruin to the private citizen, starvation to the workman." Mr Harrison goes on to remind the British workmen that Great Britain does not stow enough food for her crowded population, and must bur food abroad or starve. I'p to the time of war she easily paid for all that she imported, but. lieadds •

"We now have a deficit- of .£SOO.000,1)00 on the balance of trade, and the sources from which we used to meet' ir are no more: (I) The export of coal is fail ins". We have hardly enough for home. Our coal is more costly than the coal of America. Belgium, or Germany, and therefore there is no certain market for if even if we had any to spare. Vie are faced with the suicidal necessity of having to import coal, to pay Americans i'or it as well as corn, meat, and cheese. (i'l Our foreis'n investment lias been paid away to save exchanges. (."!) Owing to the cost of coal, (he rise of wages and uf raw materials, our manufactures arc becoming ton dear for foreign traders to Imv. America, Germany, mid Belgium are producing them more cheaply. (-I) 'Our merchant navy largely has been sunk. Rising prices make it too costly to build, and we have not enoutrh ships to bring food. One hundred millions in Knrope arc on the verse of starvation. Not a third of the industrial power of Knrope is at full work ills' efficiency. Man lor man the American is producing three times iliat of the Briton. Our central power in eoal is giving out. The nations iirountl ns are driving ns out of our markets abroad —and even at home. We cannot so on work ins: live davs for six hours if foreigners work six days for eight or ten hours."

In liis London weekly John Hull, Alt TTor.'itin llottomlev also bewails flit' fyiot. iluil while tUnited States is bustling nhmtr on (ho highway of world eomoroo, England is in the throes of labor unrest —of strikes:, of throats, of "direct notion," awl all (ho rest of it, and ho tolls us: "Take (ho minim* industry. The men's loruli*'* seem to think that an annual tu'oduotiou per man of about '..'111 tonrt of coal is a reasonable output. Tn America, the average pro-

Iticl inn is /llt l lons | .it ma n. '|'| (».|| 11 IS Illa I . while lieful'i. ||„. >\c i■\j ui v t til n.MI'U eighty Chilli,,^ -eliding Old V jllsl i>\ IT 1 « rill \ 1,, i 111 (1| - and ihe ipiain ii.v c. still diuHi,;..),! Jug. Indeed. Annre a i- ,itn ;]l |„ st-nding vi •;»! i" Norway. v ,;i| lie del i yen ng t! 1 H re rn wri|/> Bui all i lti< ai iiin** ,»**;>iu : ~, A 11:»-1 : >-a 11 i■ien: i. .* ale I iln- : via ,' >t internal dangers oi' 1.-ilior urn.-.; ' ridiculed by 'tic Socialist 1 . i,, i, l|( Dailv lleraid. u InVli -p<*:<K ~| (i Covcrnnicnt as being "sn |..ii,., about si l'ikes and t lil'ea: s ,n • m 1,,., •• •»ud charges that"The capitalist press are ii Vn ,„. to work up the ignorant port inns ,~f the public into a similar st,i;» panic. Vet nothing can eoi, u . llf panic—save, disaster. No pi'tvun , ;l|| take strikes lightlv. Thev ,thv ;iVs cause inconvenience, often trouble, sometimes severe to the public not on strike; n,,"! almost always cause seven- snlVn-j,,,, io the strikers. The simple t':tc-7* however, remains that thev .n,, 'l>crfe?Mlv orderly, just, reason: ih| r constitutional method of 'jeui,,,! grievances rectified —and. in our sent industrial sys.tem, the only air . tlioil. Wo all have to clioo M . tween the right to strike ami shwpvv

. . What is reallv to he fe;ii ( .,j is not the success, but the failure n f he labor moveinenl. The fmve.. reaction are <ptile obviously ing for a definite and desperate I enipt (o smash trade-unionism, ]| mv is trade-unionism prepared lor the ;iv sault :' We think the time has ;ifrived when the industrial and ] HI . litieal labor movement should t;ii,,> stock of itself. . . . The iimy,.. inent must make tip ils mind «li a | j. is it wants to do. If it is gein.. tll tl'V to patch up the present Iniiitstrial system, well and good. T|ih m . of us who believe thai to !„■ u run., must go on with our work of ;l ..ii tiou til! we have converted the n,,. jority. But we are coiilide'ni i| K ,| the ji'reat mass of *t tjkli—ki i it»ni-t s want industries nationalised, ami d ( .. sire them, to be organised liy |||,. workers for the good of the nn,|. munitv. This to us is the only w ; iv by which the nation can be savnl, and it is for this purpose thai urge the labor movement to t;i| vl . action."